I am going to attempt a daphnia culture soon and have been thinking about the best way to approach it. I have had very succesful cultures outside that I did not touch at all, however they were probably not the most optimal. It sounds like the main killers of daphnia are overfeeding, and unferfeeding? Overfeeding can kill a culture overnight. And it sounds like daphnia blooms are followed by busts because the population did not have enough food to sustain itself.
Some methods involve adding organic material to the culture that provides food for the bacteria/algae that the daphnia consume. I think this may have been why my one culture did so well since it had a bunch of leaf litter at the bottom.
However the thought of not having any filtration does make me feel uneasy. I know it is what works, but surely some level of filtration would help? I was thinking of doing a daphnia culture connected to my pond, maybe another culture connected to my planted tank. I drip water in the culture, enough to WC it once a day(maybe slower?). And have the water overflow back to the pond (micron mesh on overflow). This would keep the water quality high, and reduce the probability of crashing the culture from overfeeding it (I recently did...). I could add some leaf litter to the bottom.
Thoughts on this? Would the water be too clean for the daphninia and thus there may not be enough food for a nice population? My pond looks crystal clear from the top, but if you put a camera in it there is a lot of particulate suspended in the water. Here is the pond and some underwater footage at the end
Some methods involve adding organic material to the culture that provides food for the bacteria/algae that the daphnia consume. I think this may have been why my one culture did so well since it had a bunch of leaf litter at the bottom.
However the thought of not having any filtration does make me feel uneasy. I know it is what works, but surely some level of filtration would help? I was thinking of doing a daphnia culture connected to my pond, maybe another culture connected to my planted tank. I drip water in the culture, enough to WC it once a day(maybe slower?). And have the water overflow back to the pond (micron mesh on overflow). This would keep the water quality high, and reduce the probability of crashing the culture from overfeeding it (I recently did...). I could add some leaf litter to the bottom.
Thoughts on this? Would the water be too clean for the daphninia and thus there may not be enough food for a nice population? My pond looks crystal clear from the top, but if you put a camera in it there is a lot of particulate suspended in the water. Here is the pond and some underwater footage at the end
